CAL POLY - Two years ago, Rita Garcia graduated from Alisal High School in Salinas as the valedictorian of her 330-person senior class. She eagerly wanted to get into Cal Poly and study graphic design.

But Garcia was one of 15,000 applicants rejected by the highly selective university that year. Nearly 9,000 students were accepted.

Upset over an admissions process she claims is unfair to Latinos, Garcia and two other nonadmitted students are suing the university and demanding that a judge find Cal Poly's practices illegal under the state's anti-discrimination laws.

The numerical-based admissions process favors those who live in white-dominated San Luis Obispo County and nearby regions, according to the suit. And, it said, the criteria overemphasize SAT scores, which historically have been higher for whites and Asians and lower for Latinos.

"These two criteria need to be eliminated entirely or substantially devalued," said Victor Viramontes, the plaintiffs' attorney. "Geographical preferences are not related to getting the best applicants. And Cal Poly SLO needs to use criteria that reflect four years of (high) school performance like GPA or class rank."

The three students declined interview requests. They filed the suit Wednesday in San Luis Obispo County Superior Court.

Cal Poly spokeswoman Leah Kolt said Friday that the university could not comment on the lawsuit because school officials have not yet seen it. University President Warren Baker, executive admissions director James Maraviglia and California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed are named as defendants.

But Kolt did note that Cal Poly has been ranked among the top 100 universities in the nation for awarding bachelor's degrees to Latinos, according to The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education magazine.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which has been successful in spurring changes in admission policies in the past, is providing lawyers for the Poly suit.

In 1999, the civil rights group filed a federal lawsuit against UC Berkeley, saying the school's admission process placed too much weight on SAT scores and advanced placement classes. The UC system later settled the suit with the group, said Viramontes, a staff attorney for the Los Angeles-based defense fund.

Two years later, then-UC President Richard Atkinson called for dropping SAT scores as a condition of admission and replacing them with revamped tests that better measure what students learned in high school. Those changes will begin in 2006.

For Cal Poly undergraduate admissions, it's unclear how much weight is given to SAT scores because school officials would not disclose the process Friday. Kolt instead referred a reporter to the university Web site.

According to that site, the university considers five areas: college-prep GPA, California State University-required course work, overall GPA, ACT or SAT I test scores and extra-curricular activities. These areas are weighted differently depending on the applicant's intended major.

The lawsuit claims that the university applies a maximum of 5,000 points to each applicant and awards an extra 250 points for those who are from Cal Poly's "service area," which ranges from Kings County to Lompoc. This is discriminatory, the lawsuit says, because these areas have a lower percentage of Latino residents than the rest of the state.

Based on 2000 Census data, nearly three-quarters of San Luis Obispo County residents are white, while 16 percent are Hispanic. Statewide, 46 percent of the population is white, while 32 percent is Hispanic.

The other plaintiffs, Erika Medina and Miguel Puente, both attended Bell Gardens High School outside of Los Angeles and applied for fall 2003 admission at Cal Poly. The League of United Latin American Citizens, an advocacy group, and Southern Californian Latino activist Lilia Garcia are also named as plaintiffs.